When you consider how often you use your phone to access the internet, it’s no surprise to learn that 90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. In fact, more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices (Statista).
Naturally, this means a number of potential clients are visiting your website using a mobile device. If you’re utilizing responsive insurance website design, you can be confident your website visitors are getting the best impression of your agency. And they are always experiencing your website as you intended.
What is Responsive Web Design?
As the internet became more accessible on smaller screens like iPhones and tablets, web designers had to adapt. They started creating mobile versions of websites alongside traditional desktop versions. It quickly became impractical (and costly!) to create and maintain new versions of the same website for every type of device.
Additionally, mobile versions of websites were often much more scaled back and provided a lesser experience to the user. Consider if your client can’t find the information they are looking for on your website because they are stuck navigating a low-quality mobile version. They will most certainly go elsewhere.
A responsive insurance website design transforms automatically to correctly fit every screen size.
Responsive web design suggests design should respond to a user’s behavior — whether they are using smaller or larger screens, or viewing your website in portrait or landscape orientation.
The foundations of responsive design are flexible standards that adapt to all devices and create a similar experience no matter what device is being used.
Ingredients to Responsive Design on Your Agency’s Website
The phrase “responsive website design” was coined by Ethan Marcotte in 2010 (A List Apart). He explicitly spelled out the key components for responsive design as:
Flexible Grids or Layout: Your agency website is laid out in columns. A responsive insurance website design will include columns that automatically rearrange themselves to fit the size of the screen or browser window.
Flexible or Responsive Images: If your website is using this concept correctly, you’ll notice images scale down but never scale up past a certain size. Setting the max-width of an image to 100% allows adjustments to its size if the column containing it is made smaller.
Media Query: This aspect of responsive design is coded into your agency website and enables the responsive layout switch. Instead of locking in one layout for all screen sizes, it can change. Sidebars rearrange or alternate navigation is displayed for mobile phones and small screens.
The key element of responsive insurance website design is the flexibility of your insurance agency website content. All the elements of your website should be present (and in good quality) on all screen sizes and devices.
Is Responsive Web Design the Same as Mobile-First Design?
The concept of mobile-first design was present before responsive web design was defined. The early idea was to create simple websites for mobile phones and small devices and then enhance them. This is the opposite of making a complex site adapt itself poorly for mobile.
Mobile-first design emphasizes the importance of the mobile view, but responsive insurance website design emphasizes the same quality experience on all devices. Responsive web design incorporates the mobile-first concept but encompasses more.
Another similar concept to responsive web design is adaptive design. An adaptive design approach uses similar components as responsive design, but it does not utilize media queries. This is important because, without media queries, the “adaptive” design is only possible within limits before the design breaks.
How Can I Implement Responsive Insurance Website Design?
If you manage your agency website using a DIY website platform, you’ll need to understand the concepts of responsive web design in order to implement them. On some platforms, this will require you to toggle between desktop view and mobile view as you build your site. Other platforms will guide you with image and text best practices.
Implementing responsive design on your insurance website means taking the time to understand how all your website elements will appear on different devices. Or, it means working with a website company that puts your clients’ experience first by means of responsive web design.
Is My Insurance Agency’s Website Responsive?
Now that you understand the what and why of responsive web design, you should confirm that your agency website is using these best practices. You can start with a mobile-friendly test.
After you plug your agency website into the mobile-friendly test, you should enable to see elements that are responsive – or not. Areas that you’ll want to focus on include:
Navigation Bar: Responsive sites will condense the menu options on smaller screens. Too-small text across the top of the page is not responsive design. Check to see if the menu is cut off because of the screen size.
Images: Responsive insurance website design will scale down images and keep them aligned with the rest of the design. A sure sign your site is not responsive is if you see giant images out of alignment.
Fonts: If you have to pinch on a mobile screen to read the text, the font size is too small and is likely not responsive.
Forms: Similarly, if you have to pinch and zoom in to fill out a form on mobile, it is not a responsive design. Imagine how frustrating zooming in and out and trying to complete a form can be. This is a poor user experience for your potential clients.
Buttons: On smaller screens, your website visitors are likely using their fingers to tap buttons. All the buttons, including the “close” button on any popups, need to be easy to click using fingers.
A Responsive Insurance Website Design Will Include:
- Text sections that fill the page
- Aligned design elements that are easy to digest
- Menu options are visible without zooming
- Navigation bars in the form of a “hamburger menu” until expanded
- Forms that expand to fill the page
An Agency Website That is NOT Responsive May Include:
- Text sections that do not adjust and seem too large or small for the screen
- Forms that remain small and require you to zoom in to complete
- Navigation bar elements are small and difficult to click
- Images appear out of alignment compared to the rest of the web page
- You are able to scroll left to right on the page
Reap the Rewards of Responsive Insurance Website Design
Ultimately, you want your website to positively reflect your insurance agency. Utilizing responsive web design ensures that your clients get the same high-quality experience every time they visit your website – from their phone, computer, or tablet.
It’s also important to note, responsive design on your website also improves your visibility in Google Search. By utilizing these web design best practices, you have the potential to reach more clients and make the best impression every time.